PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY - Randy Armstrong - Faculty Biography 2020

PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY

Randy Armstrong Instructor in Music

“Music has the transformative power to build cultural bridges and reflect the diversity of the human family. Teaching and sharing the traditions of the past while exploring new innovations is one of my greatest joys.�

Education B.A. Columbia Pacific University

Biography Performer, recording artist, and composer Randy Armstrong has contributed to more than 50 albums and theater, dance and film scores. As a world fusion music pioneer and multiinstrumentalist, he co-founded Do’a World Music Ensemble, Unu Mondo, and Beyond Borders, and has toured throughout the United States and the world. He has taught North Indian sitar and tabla at the Academy since 1991 and is the director of the African Drumming & World Percussion Ensemble. He has collaborated with the Theater and Dance departments for more than 20 years and has performed on tours with the PEA Concert Choir.

Mr. Armstrong received the 2017 New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Arts Education and was selected to be the 2017-2018 artist in residence for the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in New York City at Carnegie Hall and in festivals at Lincoln Center, and has studied and performed with master drummers and musicians from around the world, including at the University of Ghana in Legon.

Mr. Armstrong has been appointed by two governors to serve as an arts councilor for the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. He is currently on the juried rosters for the NHSCA Arts in Education and Arts in Health programs, and has taught tens of thousands of students throughout his career as a teaching artist and music educator.

Mr. Armstrong’s album releases include a soundtrack for the PBS primetime series “Dinner on the Diner,” filmed in Spain, South Africa, Scotland and Southeast Asia. His CD Beyond Borders was nominated for Best World Album at the 2015 ZMR Music Awards and features 35 musicians from around globe. His original 2016 score and soundtrack for the theater and dance production The Conference of the Birds featured 11 international dance traditions, and included 50 actors ranging in ages from 4 to 84. It premiered in San Jose, California.

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